Oliver Wake

@oliver-wake.bsky.social

1013 Followers 601 Following

#DoctorWho and old TV. My Black Archive book about 'The Daleks' is out now: https://obversebooks.co.uk/product/82-the-daleks/ Doctor Who blog here: https://thehiddenplanet.substack.com/

A monochrome newspaper clipping headed: ‘Dr Who: He evades the Daleks at weekends’. It’s a brief, and frankly not very interesting, news story about William Hartnell going shopping in Tunbridge Wells.
An envelope branded House of Commons with my name visible in the address window
A newspaper cutting reviewing the second of episode of Dr Who and the Tribe of Gum. The reviewer is happy to accept the time travelling police box but not cave people arguing about fire. He concludes as detailed in the post.
Polly and Ben (groovy young woman and conservative young man) entered the police box exterior of Dr Who’s TARDIS and find Dr Who collapsed on the floor. His face metamorphoses into another. The TARDIS dematerialises and the credits roll.
A monochrome TV credits caption, including the text: Do-Do Jackie Love
A screengrab from Quatermass and the Pit showing the Martian/Devils image hovering above some houses
Photograph of a shower cubicle. A panel of the glass door is shattered and incomplete.
A screenshot from Dr Who and the Inferno. The view from inside a garage looking out the open doors onto a wave of lava rolling towards the viewer and the three characters who stand in its path. So close they can feel its fire. Thrilling!
An image of text reading: I've watched this adventure more times than I can count, but Wake's book has made me want to watch it all over again. When I do, I know that I will enjoy it all the more because I have now read this book. It's packed with fascinating reference points, informed theories and logical conclusions. This is how Doctor Who research should be done.
A lengthy supermarket freezer unit labelled as containing ice cream. It is empty.
A mockup of a 1950s style living room with a small cabinet television in the corner and framed monochrome photographs on the walls depicting moments in the life of Dennis Potter (such as his wedding).
An exhibition information plaque headed 'Dennis Potter Galley and Exhibition'.
The clip starts with the title sequence to Dr Who in its earliest years, including some additional material that wasn’t used on screen. There is then a collage of clips from the story The Chase showing Dr Who, his chums and the villainous Daleks. It ends with the appearance of a Mechonoid, a large spherical robot.
A newspaper cartoon showing several Daleks on what looks like a street of shops. One Dalek is saying ‘mind your backs!’. A woman is punching one Dalek while two men, one looking like a caricature of Neville Chamberlain (though I may be misreading the image), look on alarmed from the side.
A screengrab of a forum post by Andrew Pixley in which he says my Black Archive book is very good, bless him.
A monochrome screengrab from the Dr Who episode Devil's Planet showing the character Zephon, whose skin appears to be composed of masses of seaweed, or perhaps cabage-like vegetation. He's having a bad day.
A screengrab from the word game Spelling Bee showing that using the letters provided I have spelled 'telecine' but that the game does not accept that this is a word.
A monochrome screengrab showing three men. On the right is a middle-aged Asian man (Julian Sherrier as Dr James) dressed in a suit. To the left is a middle-aged white man (Stratford Johns as DCI Barlow) also in a suit. Behind them and in the centre of the images is a young white uniformed police constable.
An image from production of The Daleks showing William Hartnell, Carole Ann Ford and William Russell, playing Dr Who, Susan and Ian Chesterton, respectively, confronted by three Daleks in their metallic city on Skaro.
A monochrome image from newsprint. A photograph shows William Hartnell as Dr Who and Carole Ann Ford as Susan being menaced by a Dalek while manacled to a wall, from ‘Doctor Who’. Below, text publicises the episode called ‘The Rescue’.
Several identical copies of the book The Black Archive: The Daleks by Oliver Wake.
In a silvery spaceport environment, several Daleks greet a newcomer – a humanoid male of indeterminate racial characteristics wearing a futuristic tunic. Nearby Doctor Who is hiding. The clip ends on his face looking perturbed and the caption ‘Next episode: Day of Armageddon’. It fades to black.
Four Daleks in a spaceship. The one furthest from camera turns and addresses the black boss Dalek, nearest camera.
Two bald white men in polo-necked overalls look at the control console on the deck of a spaceship, in a monochrome screengrab from Dr Who
Thumbnail for a Forbes story about the recovery of missing Dr Who episodes. The image shows William Hartnell as Dr Who with two bald Technix extras in front of a projection of a Dalek on film. The headline reports that the episodes were found in a collection of "VCR tapes".
A misty, rocky planet surface that looks a lot like a quarry. Dr Who (as played by Tom Baker, a middle-aged white man with crazy eyes) appears out of the mist. He looks like he was dressed by his mum, in the dark. He is engaged in conversation by another middle-aged white man, this one dressed like a medieval jester going to a funeral.
A round symbol of what looks like the dome of a Dalek, next to which is printed ‘Stations & Onward Travel’.
Television profile shot of a middle aged white man (actor Derek Jacobi playing Alan Turing) with black bars both to the sides and top/bottom of the picture.
Text reading: How can we get in touch about offers and services we think you'll love?
A portrait shot of Captain Hart, a middle-aged white man in naval uniform.
Two sequences. In the first a woman joins a man at a table while a TV camera fails to keep out of view in the set behind them. In the second a man rushes out of a door and as he approaches it the microphone following him is clearly seen.
The first page of an Order of Service stating: Music on Entry: Theme from Harry's Game - Clannad.
Tom Baker in a recent photo, looking rakishly at the camera, wearing his Dr Who scarf.
A short video clip in which a shot of a Dalek city model transitions into a shot of two Daleks within the city. The shots end/begin respectively by panning down and de/refocussing to suggest the (fictional) spatial connection of the two environments.
Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred in costume as Dr Who and Ace respectively on the set of The Happiness Patrol. They are larking about. McCoy pretends to slap Aldred and then to punch her in the stomach and she responds in an exaggerated fashion.
Screengrab of a twitter post containing two photographs of a dalek made of snow. In the second it has partly melted and looks a mite suggestive.
A large brick building upon which is a sign reading ‘Territorial Army Centre’. Outside are RAF vehicles and two personnel, plus the green open back lorry belong to the builder’s merchant Mr Ratcliffe.
An image from the TV series 'Nine Bodies in a Mexican Morgue' captioned with the pull-quote: "It’s something I don’t think anyone will have ever seen before in a TV drama".
The contents of a box of chocolate liqueurs. There are 5 chocolates and 3 empty spaces.
A shot of the circus ring set from Doctor Who and the Greatest Show in the Galaxy. Several clowns enter summersaulting. One crashes into another and they both hit the deck.
A front elevation design drawing for the Dalek shuttle from Remembrance of the Daleks with a slightly incomplete Dalek drawn alongside.
The set of TV show QI seen from the rear with the studio audience at the back of the shot. The participants, notably Sandi Toksvig, face away from us. Sandi’s chair has a label on the back reading ‘the boss’ and her glass of water is signposted with a label saying ‘gin’.
Text reading: 'Suppose they say up there: "Let's start varying and modifying life on the earth. Let's change it. Let's get at the human character and the human brain and make it Martian–minded. Let's stop having children on this rusty little old planet of ours, and let's change men until they become in effect our children. Let's get spiritual children there." D'you see? Martian minds in seasoned terrestrial bodies.'
A page from a book featuring some text about the sonic screwdriver and an illustration of three aspects of the tool next to a scale showing that 50cm would account for nearly 25% of its length.
Dr Who (Jon Pertwee) fiddling with a knob on his equipment by some large doors, from Dr Who and the Inferno (1970).
Three chairs around a small table. Above them, a flipping massive lamp shade.
The living room of a flat with a 1930s model television at the back of the shot.
A screenshot from The Happiness Patrol which includes the subtitle 'own bed'.
An open domestic doorway seen from within, a woman on each side (Kate O'Mara faces us stood outside). There is a monochrome two dimensional house behind her in an otherwise colour image.
Profile shot of John Scott Martin with his voluminous barnet apparently glowing.
A screenshot from The Daleks showing the Doctor sat talking to Dyoni with the Thal historical records in front of them
Promo picture for a Radio Times article which includes text referring to Rylan as a Doctor Who superfan. (I bet he doesn't know the lyrics to Doctor in Distress)
A sculpture which looks a bit like an egg with a quarter cut out. Text says it's being bought for £3.8m. That's a lot of egg.
The bottom of the page of a book. The text includes the intervention 'libel read'.
Actors Colin Baker and Liza Goddard sat at a table in a posho house looking pleased with themselves
An image of the memoir 'They Shoot Directors, Don't They?' by Philip Saville.
A screengrab from episode 4 of Dr Who and the Remembrance of the Daleks showing the Supreme Dalek with Ratcliffe and Mike Smith. A subtitle shows the dalek is saying “Kneel!”.
My television screen showing the title card for the film The Day the Earth Caught Fire. Behind the text is a shot of the dried up Thames with Tower Bridge in the distance.
William Russell as Ian Chesterton looks up at a strange pointed device attached to the wall in ‘The Daleks’.